Search

Background: Considerable research has mapped the human brain networks implicated in anxiety. Yet, less is known about the intrinsic features of the brain implicated in adolescent anxiety and their generalizability to affective and behavioral problems. To this end, we investigated the intrinsic functional connectomes associated with anxiety, their associations with behavioral phenotypes of clinical interest, and the cross-syndrome overlap between the anxiety network and other affective syndromes in an adolescent sample., Methods: We used the Boston Adolescent Neuroimaging of Depression and Anxiety (BANDA) dataset which comprises 203 clinical and healthy adolescents aged 14-17. Participants underwent a resting-state magnetic resonance imaging scan and completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and Behavioral Inhibition/Activation System scale. Using network-based statistics, we identified functional networks associated with anxiety and other behavioral syndromes. The anxiety network strengths were then correlated with behavioral measures., Results: A significant resting-state functional network associated with anxiety was identified, largely characterized by hyperconnectivity between the somatomotor and both the default mode network and subcortical regions. Network strengths derived from the anxiety network were significantly correlated to various behavioral syndromes, including internalizing and externalizing tendencies. Cross-syndrome overlapping edges were also observed in networks of internalizing disorders, more prominently post-traumatic stress syndromes., Conclusions: Our results revealed the functional connectomes characteristic of anxiety in adolescents. This resting-state functional network was also predictive of and shared similar features with behavioral syndromes typically associated with anxiety-related disorders, providing evidence that the high comorbidity of anxiety with other clinical conditions may have a neurobiological basis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors report no competing financial interests or potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Previous studies on age-related changes in cortical and hippocampal morphology were not designed or able to reveal the complex spatial patterns of changes across the lifespan. To this end, the current study examined these changes in a decade-by-decade manner by comparing consecutive age decades at the vertex-wise level. Additionally, the lifespan trajectories of cortical/hippocampal mean thickness and total surface area were modeled and plotted out to provide an overview of their age-related changes. Using two lifespan datasets (N total  = 1378; 18 ≤ age ≤ 100), vertex-wise thickness and surface area measurements were extracted from the cortical and unfolded hippocampal surfaces and analyzed using whole-brain/hippocampus vertex-wise analyses. Lifespan trajectories of cortical/hippocampal mean thickness and total surface area were modeled with generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape. These models revealed fairly linear declines in both cortical measures and inverted U-shaped trajectories for both hippocampal measures. Across the different age decades, the sizes and locations of cortical thinning clusters were highly variable across the age decades. No significant clusters of cortical surface area changes were observed across the age decades. Significant clusters of hippocampal surface area and thickness reduction were not observed until the 70s. Generally, the agreement between datasets on the hippocampal findings was much higher than those of the cortical surface. These findings revealed important nuances in the age-related changes of cortical and hippocampal morphology and cautioned against using lifespan trajectories to infer decade-by-decade changes in the cortical surface and the hippocampus., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American Aging Association.)

Introduction/objective: Age-related cognitive decline has been linked with risk factors, including physical performance. Prior studies investigating such associations were typically conducted in clinical settings within Western populations with a frequent focus on late neurocognitive diagnostic stages (i.e., Alzheimer's disease), reducing their generalizability to the Asian population and early neurocognitive stages. To address these knowledge gaps, our study investigated longitudinal associations between physical performance measures at baseline and cognitive change in global cognition, executive functioning (EF) based and non-executive functioning (non- EF) based cognitive domains within the Singaporean population. The moderating role of early neurocognitive status, namely mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively normal (CN), was also examined., Methods: This paper examined data from 347 participants (CN = 284; MCI = 63) who participated in the Community Health and Intergenerational (CHI) study at baseline and follow-up. Data from a neurocognitive battery and three physical performance tests, namely the timed-up and go (TUG), fast gait speed (FGS) and 30-second chair-stand test (30s-CST), were analysed using multivariate linear regression models., Results: Only one significant association between FGS scores and cognitive change in Semantic Fluency was observed; other associations were not significant. Cognitive status also significantly moderated associations between TUG/30s-CST tasks with several neurocognitive tests., Conclusion: The lack of significant longitudinal associations between baseline physical performance measures and cognitive change differed from findings in the literature. Nevertheless, the moderating role of cognitive status further highlighted the need to account for cognitive status when exploring such associations within a heterogeneous group of older adults without dementia., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

The concept of ferroelectric polarons is proposed to partially explain the exceptional optoelectronic properties observed in lead halide perovskites (LHPs). It is intriguing but unclear how this proposal, which involves local or transient polarizations, applies in general to 2D LHPs with long-range ferroelectricity. Here, this work presents a pioneering time-domain experimental investigation of polarons in ferroelectric (IA) 2 (MA) 2 Pb 3 Br 10 (IMPB; IA is isoamylammonium and MA is methylammonium) using transient absorption spectroscopy. Compared to non-ferroelectric LHPs, IMPB exhibits several distinct polaronic properties closely associated with macroscopic polarizations of ferroelectricity, including a prolonged polaron formation time (≈1.1 ps), a Stark splitting of the bleaching (≈63 meV), and a giant polaron Mott density (≈7.6 × 10 18 cm -3 ). These findings broaden the realm of 2D polaron systems and reveal the decisive role of static/unidirectional polarizations on polaron physics in 2D LHPs., (© 2024 The Author(s). Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)

Objectives: In order to investigate the impact of L-cysteine (L-Cys) on starch and protein degradation during barley germination. The amylase activities, degradation of macromolecules during germination were determined in this study., Methods: Barley was germinated in petri dish for 0 to 5 days with different levels of L-Cys (0 mM, 2.5 mM, 5 mM, 10 mM)., Results: L-Cys addition increased the total limit dextrinase (LD) activities and decreased the LD inhibitor activities during whole germination stage. The activities of α-amylase, β-amylase and free LD were increased with the addition of 2.5, 5 mM L-Cys at germination days 1 to 4. Due to higher amylase in malt with the addition of L-Cys, the non-fermentable sugars were reduced and the glucose, maltotriose were improved. Furthermore, the protein degradation analysis showed that low molecular weight protein increased and middle molecular weight protein decreased obviously in wort from the malt germinated with L-Cys, demonstrating that the L-Cys promote the protein degradation. Lastly, the filtration performance of malt with the addition of L-Cys during malting was better than the control., Conclusion: In conclusion, L-Cys can promote the degradation of storage material (starch, protein) during barley germination, leading to a better green malt quality., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.)

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) represents the most prevalent form of candidal infections, imposing a significant societal burden. Kushen gel, a chinese patent medicine, has demonstrated favorable outcomes in the treatment of VVC. In clinical practice, Kushen gel is often used in conjunction with antifungal drugs. However, the clinical evidence supporting the combined use of Kushen gel with antifungal drugs for the treatment of VVC is currently limited., Aim of the Study: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Kushen gel combined with antifungal drugs in the treatment of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC)., Materials and Methods: Databases namely CNKI, Wanfang Database, VIP Database, CBM, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase were searched from their inception to January 2024. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) applying Kushen gel combined with antifungal drugs for the treatment of VVC were included. Methodological quality assessment was performed using the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool (RoB 1.0). A Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4 software. The primary outcomes were total efficacy rate, recurrence rate, secondary outcomes included adverse events and time to clinical symptom resolution., Results: A Meta-analysis of 42 RCTs, encompassing a total of 4259 VVC patients was conducted. The results indicated that compared to antifungal drugs alone, Kushen gel combined with antifungal drugs increased the effectiveness (RR = 1.20, 95%CI [1.17, 1.23], P < 0.00001) and reduced the recurrence rate (RR = 0.21, 95%CI [0.13, 0.34], P < 0.00001), with no significant difference in safety (RR = 0.56, 95%CI [0.30, 1.03], P = 0.11)., Conclusions: Based on the available results, it appears that the combination of Kushen gel with antifungal drugs may increase the effectiveness and reduce the recurrence rate. However, due to the poor methodological quality of the included studies, more high-quality evidence from large-sample and well-designed research is needed in the future., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Aging-related neurocognitive disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), have been characterised by altered brain white matter (WM), relying widely on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). DTI's limited accuracy in assessing crossing fibres prompted novel methods that distinguish fibres crossing through same voxel-spaces, such as fixel-based analysis (FBA), highlighting subtle macrostructural and microstructural alterations in AD and MCI. We examined the FBA and DTI's specificity in determining WM features relevant to memory in the neurocognitive aging spectrum. Diffusion-weighted images were analysed in 560 participants with various neurocognitive diagnoses from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (F:297; mean age: 73.2 ± 8). Verbal memory was measured in 488 participants using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test. FBA-derived measures of fibre density (FD), fibre-bundle cross-section (FC), and their combination (FDC), DTI fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were examined in relation to diagnoses and memory scores, controlling for age, sex, and intracranial volume. MCI and AD groups significantly differed from controls, with lower FD and FDC in the fornix and bilateral fibres extending to the medial temporal lobes (MTL). Memory was positively associated with FD and FDC in the fornix and MTL fibres, and FC in the anterior commissure (AC). Widespread FA reductions and MD increases were observed in AD and MCI and widely associated with memory. Fixel-wise measures highlight fibre tracts that are altered distinctly at the macroscopic and microscopic level in neurocognitive aging, and reveals structures associated with memory performance that are more specifically located than tensor-derived measures., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American Aging Association.)

Brewer spent grains (BSGs) are one of the most abundant by-products in brewing industry. Due to microbiological instability and high perishability, the efficient degradation of BSGs is of environmental and economic importance. Streptomyces sp. F-3 could grow in the medium with BSGs as the only carbon and nitrogen source. Proteome mass spectrometry revealed that a GH10 xylanase SsXyn10A could be secreted in large quantities. SsXyn10A showed optimum activity at pH 7.0 and 60 °C. SsXyn10A exhibited excellent thermostability which retained approximately 100% and 58% after incubation for 5 h at 50 and 60 °C. SsXyn10A displayed high activity to beechwood xylan (BX) and wheat arabinoxylan (WAX). SsXyn10A is active against xylotetracose (X4), xylopentose (X5), and xylohexose (X6) to produce main products xylobiose (X2) and xylotriose (X3). Ssxyn10A showed synergistic effects with commercial cellulase on BSGs hydrolyzing into soluble sugar. In addition, the steam explosion pretreatment of BSGs as the substrate produced twice as much reducing sugar as the degradation of the original substrate. This study will contribute to efficient utilization of BSGs and provide a thermostable GH10 xylanase which has potential application in biomass hydrolysis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Personality traits have been proposed as risk factors for depressive symptoms. However, the neural mechanism behind these relationships is unclear. This study examined the possible mediating effect of resting-state functional connectivity networks on these relationships., Methods: Data from 153 healthy Germans were obtained from the MPI-Leipzig Mind-Brain-Body: Neuroanatomy & Connectivity Protocol database. Network-based statistics were used to identify significant functional connectivity networks that were positively and negatively associated with the personality traits of neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion, with and without demographical covariates. Mediation analyses were performed for each personality trait and depressive symptoms with the significant positive and negative network strengths of the respective personality traits as mediators., Results: Neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion were significantly correlated with depressive symptoms. Network-based statistics identified patterns of functional connectivity that were significantly associated with neuroticism and conscientiousness. After controlling for demographical covariates, significant conscientiousness-associated and extraversion-associated networks emerged. Mediation analysis concluded that only the neuroticism-positive network mediated the effect of neuroticism on depressive symptoms. When age and sex were controlled, the extraversion-positive network completely mediated the effect of extraversion on depressive symptoms., Conclusions: These findings revealed that patterns of intrinsic functional networks predict personality traits and suggest that the relationship between personality traits and depressive symptoms may in part be due to their common patterns of intrinsic functional networks., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Lee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Alterations in grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) are associated with memory impairment across the neurocognitive aging spectrum and theorised to spread throughout brain networks. Functional and structural connectivity (FC,SC) may explain widespread atrophy. We tested the effect of SC and FC to the hippocampus on cortical thickness (CT) of connected areas. In 419 (223 F) participants (age mean =73 ± 8) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, cortical regions associated with memory (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test) were identified using Lasso regression. Two structural equation models (SEM), for SC and resting-state FC, were fitted including CT areas, and SC and FC to the left and right hippocampus (LHIP,RHIP). LHIP (β=-0.150,p=<.001) and RHIP (β=-0.139,p=<.001) SC predicted left temporopolar/rhinal CT; RHIP SC predicted right temporopolar/rhinal CT (β=-0.191,p=<.001). LHIP SC predicted right fusiform/parahippocampal (β=-0.104,p=.011) and intraparietal sulcus/superior parietal CT (β=0.101,p=.028). Increased RHIP FC predicted higher left inferior parietal CT (β=0.132,p=.042) while increased LHIP FC predicted lower right fusiform/parahippocampal CT (β=-0.97; p=.023). The hippocampi may be epicentres for cortical thinning through disrupted connectivity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Herein, we disclosed a highly efficient pathway toward 3-selenylated chromone derivatives via electrocatalytic cascade selenylation/cyclization/deamination of 2-hydroxyaryl enaminones with diselenides. This method showed mild conditions, easy operation, wide substrate scope, and good functional group tolerance. Furthermore, this electrosynthesis strategy was amendable to scale-up the reaction. Additionally, the preliminary experiments revealed that this reaction probably proceeded via a cation pathway instead of a radical pathway.

Perovskite nanoplatelets (NPLs) show great potential for high-color-purity light-emitting diodes (LEDs) due to their narrow line width and high exciton binding energy. However, the performance of perovskite NPL LEDs lags far behind perovskite quantum dot-/film-based LEDs, owing to their material instability and poor carrier transport. Here, we achieved efficient and stable pure blue-emitting CsPbBr 3 NPLs with outstanding optical and electrical properties by using an aromatic ligand, 4-bromothiophene-2-carboxaldehyde (BTC). The BTC ligands with thiophene groups can guide two-dimensional growth and inhibit out-of-plane ripening of CsPbBr 3 NPLs, which, meanwhile, increases their structural stability via strongly interacting with PbBr 6 4- octahedra. Moreover, aromatic structures with delocalized π-bonds facilitate charge transport, diminish band tail states, and suppress Auger processes in CsPbBr 3 NPLs. Consequently, the LEDs demonstrate efficient and color-stable blue emissions at 465 nm with a narrow emission line width of 17 nm and a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 5.4%, representing the state-of-the-art CsPbBr 3 NPL LEDs.

Harder kernels of barley are regarded as one of the factors that restrict water and enzyme movement within the endosperm during malting. A comprehensive study of two domestic varieties was performed for evaluating malting quality. Both β-glucan and total protein content of the Chinese domestic barley (Ganpi-6 and Kenpi-14) were significantly higher than Copeland. Grain hardness of the Chinese domestic barley was higher and water uptake ratio was lower compared with the Copeland. During germination, the expression levels of NCED1, NCED2 (major key regulatory enzymes for abscisic acid biosynthesis genes) were higher, whereas gibberelic acid (GA) synthesis genes (GA20ox1, GA2ox3, GA3ox2) were lower in the Ganpi-6, Kenpi-14 compared with Copeland. These two domestic barley varieties also showed significantly lower limit dextrinase and β-glucanase activity compared with Copeland. Ultrasound treatment improved the malting quality of Ganpi-6 by enhancing water uptake and GA synthesis gene expression increased. Therefore, these findings provided insights into the future direction on the utilization of ultrasonication for the applications towards the improvement of the harder barley variety., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Introduction: Patients with Alzheimer's disease present with difficulty in lexical retrieval and reversal of the concreteness effect in nouns. Little is known about the phenomena before the onset of symptoms. We anticipate early linguistic signs in the speech of people who suffer from amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Here, we report the results of a corpus-linguistic approach to the early detection of cognitive impairment., Methods: One hundred forty-eight English-speaking Singaporeans provided natural speech data, on topics of their choice; 74 were diagnosed with single-domain MCI (38 amnestic, 36 non-amnestic), 74 cognitively healthy. The recordings yield 267,310 words, which are tagged for parts of speech. We calculate the per-minute word counts and concreteness scores of all tagged words, nouns, and verbs in the dataset., Results: Compared to controls, subjects with amnestic MCI produce fewer but more abstract nouns. Verbs are not affected., Discussion: Slower retrieval of nouns and the reversal of the concreteness effect in nouns are manifested in natural speech and can be detected early through corpus-based analysis., Highlights: Reversal of the concreteness effect is manifested in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and semantic dementia.The paper reports a corpus-based analysis of natural speech by people with amnestic and non-amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively healthy controls.People with amnestic MCI produce fewer and more abstract nouns than people with non-amnestic MCI and healthy controls. Verbs appear to be unaffected.The imageability problem can be detected in natural everyday speech by people with amnestic MCI, which carries a higher risk of conversion to AD., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The research is approved by the institutional review board of the National University of Singapore (H‐17‐047). Author disclosures are available in the supporting information., (© 2024 The Authors. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.)

Graphitic carbon nitrides ( g -C 3 N 4 ) as low-cost, chemically stable, and ecofriendly layered semiconductors have attracted rapidly growing interest in optoelectronics and photocatalysis. However, the nature of photoexcited carriers in g -C 3 N 4 is still controversial, and an independent charge-carrier picture based on the band theory is commonly adopted. Here, by performing transient spectroscopy studies, we show characteristics of self-trapped excitons (STEs) in g -C 3 N 4 nanosheets including broad trapped exciton-induced absorption, picosecond exciton trapping without saturation at high photoexcitation density, and transient STE-induced stimulated emissions. These features, together with the ultrafast exciton trapping polarization memory, strongly suggest that STEs intrinsically define the nature of the photoexcited states in g -C 3 N 4 . These observations provide new insights into the fundamental photophysics of carbon nitrides, which may enlighten novel designs to boost energy conversion efficiency.

Hyperuricemia is mainly caused by insufficient renal urate excretion. Urate transporter 1 (URAT1), an organic anion transporter, is the main protein responsible for urate reabsorption. In this study, we utilized artificial intelligence-based AlphaFold2 program to construct URAT1 structural model. After molecular docking and conformational evaluation, four e-pharmacophoric models were constructed based on the complex structures of probenecid-URAT1, benzbromarone-URAT1, lesinurad-URAT1, and verinurad-URAT1. Combining pharmacophore modeling, molecular docking, MM/GBSA calculation and ADME prediction, 25 flavonoids were selected from the natural products database containing 10,968 molecules. Then, a model of HEK-293T cells overexpressing URAT1 was constructed, and the inhibitory activity to URAT1 of 25 flavonoids was evaluated by measuring their effect on cellular uptake of 6-carboxyfluorescein (6-CFL). Fisetin, baicalein, and acacetin showed the best activity with IC 50 values of 12.77, 26.71, and 57.30 µM, respectively. Finally, the structure-activity relationship of these three flavonoids was analyzed by molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations. The results showed that the carbonyl group on C-4 and hydroxyl group on C-7, C-4', and C-5' in flavonoids were conducive for URAT1 inhibitory effects. This study facilitates the application of flavonoids in the development of URAT1 inhibitors.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Background: Cognitive frailty, defined as having both physical frailty and cognitive impairment that does not satisfy the criteria for Major Neurocognitive Disorder, represents an elevated risk for morbidity. Hence, it is crucial to mitigate such risks. Physical activity interventions have been found effective in protecting against physical frailty and cognitive deterioration. This pilot RCT examines if smartwatches and mobile phone applications can help to increase physical activity, thereby improving physical and cognitive outcomes., Methods: Older individuals (n = 60) aged 60 to 85 years old will have their physical activity tracked using a smartwatch. The subjects will be randomized into two arms: one group will receive daily notification prompts if they did not reach the recommended levels of PA; the control group will not receive prompts. Outcome variables of physical activity level, neurocognitive scores, and physical frailty scores will be measured at baseline, T1 (3 months), and T2 (6 months). Sleep quality, levels of motivation, anxiety, and depression will be controlled for in our analyses. We hypothesize that the intervention group will have higher levels of physical activity resulting in improved cognitive and physical outcomes at follow-up. This study was approved by the National University of Singapore's Institutional Review Board on 17 August 2020 (NUS-IRB Ref. No.: H-20-038)., Discussion: Wearable sensors technology could prove useful by facilitating self-management in physical activity interventions. The findings of this study can justify the use of technology in physical activity as a preventive measure against cognitive frailty in older adults. This intervention also complements the rapidly rising use of technology, such as smartphones and wearable health devices, in our lives today., Registration Details: This study has been retrospectively registered on clinicaltrials.gov on 5th January 2021 (NCT Identifier: NCT04692974), after the first participant was recruited., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright: © 2024 Kiah Hui Siew et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Ubiquitin-specific protease 7 (USP7) is a promising prognostic and druggable target for cancer therapy. Inhibition of USP7 can activate the MDM2-P53 signaling pathway, thereby promoting cancer cell apoptosis. This study based on watvina molecular docking of virtual screening method and biological evaluation found the new USP7 inhibitors targeting catalytic active site. Three hits were screened from 3760 natural products and validated as USP7 inhibitors by enzymatic and kinetic assays. The IC 50 values of scutellarein (Scu), semethylzeylastera (DML) and salvianolic acid C (SAC) were 3.017, 6.865 and 8.495 μM, respectively. Further, we reported that the hits could downregulate MDM2 and activate p53 signal pathway in HCT116 cells. Molecular dynamics simulation was used to investigate the binding mechanism of USP7 to Scu, the compound with the best performance, which formed stable contact with Val296, Gln297, Phe409, Tyr465 and Tyr514. These interactions are essential for maintaining the biological activity of Scu. Three natural products are suitable as lead compounds for the development of novel USP7 inhibitors, especially anti-colon cancer drugs.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

The rapid pace of population ageing worldwide has prompted the need to better understand the ageing process. The current study, titled the Longitudinal Follow-up of the CHI (LFC) study, was a 3-year follow-up study of an earlier study titled the Community Health and Intergenerational (CHI) study. The LFC study looked to examine longitudinal changes in their cognitive functioning and psychosocial outcomes across the 3-year period. Additionally, the current study built upon the earlier CHI study by collecting neuroimaging data and exploring the long-term effects of non-pharmacological interventions, which were not examined in the prior study. A total of 653 community-dwelling participants from the baseline CHI study cohort were invited to take part in the LFC study, where they underwent a battery of neuropsychological assessments, psychosocial questionnaires, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan and a voice recording segment. The current study would holistically track longitudinal changes in cognitive functioning and psychosocial outcomes in the ageing population in Singapore. Unique associations between linguistics and neuroimaging data alongside cognitive and psychosocial outcomes would be explored. This study also serves to guide the development of new interventions for older adults and assist in improving the well-being of the local and global ageing population., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2024 Published by Elsevier B.V.)

"All old people are the same" is an unfortunate characterization of the perceived homogeneity in the older age group. This study attempts to debunk this myth in the context of the structural and functional brain. Within older relative to younger age groups, individuals are hypothesized to be more dissimilar to their similar-aged peers-thus demonstrating an age-related divergence. This study analyzed functional connectivity (FC) during multiple fMRI paradigms (2 rest + 5 tasks) and cortical thickness (CT) data from two lifespan datasets (N total  = 1161). On average, between-subject FC/CT correlations became weaker in the older age groups. Further analyses ruled out the possibility that more rapid age-related changes in older brains have increased the dissimilarity in these older age groups. Brain-wide analyses revealed significant effects of age-related divergence across most of the brain. Finally, CT similarity between a dyad significantly predicted their FC similarity across multiple fMRI task paradigms-demonstrating a close relationship between brain structure and function even at the between-dyad level. Contrary to the myth that "all old people are the same," these findings suggest young people are more similar to each other. This study presents major implications in the study of neural fingerprinting and brain-behavior associations., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American Aging Association.)

We can study how fast our biological aging clocks tick by calculating the difference (i.e., age gaps) between machine learning estimations of biological age and chronological age. While this approach has been increasingly used to study various aspects of aging, few had applied this approach to study cognitive and physical age gaps; not much is known about the behavioral and neurocognitive factors associated with these age gaps. In the present study, we examined these age gaps in relation to behavioral phenotypes and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among community-dwelling older adults. Participants (N = 822, Age mean  = 67.6) were partitioned into equally-sized training and testing samples. Cognitive and physical age-prediction models were fitted using nine cognitive and eight physical fitness test scores, respectively, within the training samples, and subsequently used to estimate cognitive and physical age gaps for each subject in the testing sample. These age gaps were then compared among those with and without MCI and correlated with 17 behavioral phenotypes in the domains of lifestyle, well-being, and attitudes. Across 5000 random train-test split iterations, we showed that older cognitive age gaps were significantly associated with MCI (versus cognitively normal) and worse outcomes across several well-being and attitude-related measures. Both age gaps were also significantly correlated with each other. These results suggest accelerated cognitive and physical aging were linked to worse well-being and more negative attitudes about the self and others and reinforce the link between cognitive and physical aging. Importantly, we have also validated the use of cognitive age gaps in the diagnosis of MCI., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to American Aging Association.)

While increasing studies have documented the link between mind wandering and task switching, less is known about which brain regions mediate this relationship. Using the MPI-Leipzig Mind-Brain-Body dataset (N = 173), we investigated the association between trait-level tendencies of mind wandering, task-switching performance, structural connectivity, and resting-state functional connectivity. At the behavioral level, we found that higher spontaneous mind-wandering trait scores were associated with shorter reaction times on both repeat and switch trials. The whole brain cortical thickness analysis revealed a strong mediating role of the left superior parietal lobe, which is part of the dorsal attention network, in the link between spontaneous mind-wandering tendency and task-switching performance. The resting-state functional connectivity analysis further demonstrated that this association was partly mediated by the negative dorsal attention network-default mode network functional connectivity. No significant mediating effects were found for deliberate mind-wandering tendency. Overall, the findings highlight the pivotal role of the left superior parietal lobe in activating new mental set during mind-wandering and task-switching processes, providing another evidence in favor of a role for switching in mind wandering., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mindfulness has become increasingly popular and the practice presents in many different forms. Research has been growing extensively with benefits shown across various outcomes. However, there is a lack of consensus over the efficacy of randomized controlled mindfulness interventions, both traditional and mind-body formats. This study aimed to investigate the structural brain changes in mindfulness-based interventions through a meta-analysis. Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO were searched up to April 2023. 11 studies (n = 581) assessing whole-brain voxel-based grey matter or cortical thickness changes after a mindfulness RCT were included. Anatomical likelihood estimation was used to carry out voxel-based meta-analysis with leave-one-out sensitivity analysis and behavioural analysis as follow-ups. One significant cluster (p < 0.001, Z = 4.76, cluster size = 632 mm 3 ) emerged in the right insula and precentral gyrus region (MNI = 48, 10, 4) for structural volume increases in intervention group compared to controls. Behavioural analysis revealed that the cluster was associated with mental processes of attention and somesthesis (pain). Mindfulness interventions have the ability to affect neural plasticity in areas associated with better pain modulation and increased sustained attention. This further cements the long-term benefits and neuropsychological basis of mindfulness-based interventions., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Previous studies have demonstrated that the intestinal abundance of Bacteroides uniformis is significantly higher in healthy controls than that in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). However, what effect B. uniformis has on the development of UC has not been characterized. Here, we show for the first time that B. uniformis F18-22, an alginate-fermenting bacterium isolated from the healthy human colon, protects against dextran-sulfate-sodium (DSS)-induced UC in mice. Specifically, oral intake of B. uniformis F18-22 alleviated colon contraction, improved intestinal bleeding and attenuated mucosal damage in diseased mice. Additionally, B. uniformis F18-22 improved gut dysbiosis in UC mice by increasing the abundance of anti-inflammatory acetate-producing bacterium Eubacterium siraeum and decreasing the amount of pro-inflammatory pathogenetic bacteria Escherichia-Shigella spp. Moreover, B. uniformis F18-22 was well-tolerated in mice and showed no oral toxicity after repeated daily administration for 28 consecutive days. Taken together, our study illustrates that B. uniformis F18-22 is a safe and novel probiotic bacterium for the treatment of UC from the healthy human colon.

Here we report a strategy for the facile assembly of fused 3-trifluoromethyl-1,2,4-triazoles, which are difficult to synthesize using traditional strategies, in 50-96% yields through a triethylamine-promoted intermolecular [3 + 2] cycloaddition pathway. This protocol features high efficiency, good functional group tolerance, mild conditions, and easy operation. Furthermore, a gram-scale reaction and product derivatizations were carried out smoothly to illustrate the practicability of this method.

Along with long-term evolution, the plant cell wall generates lignocellulose and other anti-degradation barriers to confront hydrolysis by fungi. Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO) is a newly defined oxidase in lignocellulosic degradation systems that significantly fuels hydrolysis. LPMO accepts electrons from wide sources, such as cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH), glucose-methanol-choline (GMC) oxidoreductases, and small phenols. In addition, the extracellular cometabolic network formed by cosubstrates improves the degradation efficiency, forming a stable and efficient lignocellulose degradation system. In recent years, using structural proteomics to explore the internal structure and the complex redox system of LPMOs has become a research hotspot. In this review, the diversity of LPMOs, catalytic domains, carbohydrate binding modules, direct electron transfer with CDH, cosubstrates, and degradation networks of LPMOs are explored, which can provide a systematic reference for the application of lignocellulosic degradation systems in industrial approaches.

Objectives: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is an at-risk stage for dementia and accurate prevalence studies are lacking in Singapore. From the literature, it is evident that psychosocial factors increase the risk of conversion to dementia. In this study, we sought to establish the prevalence of MCI in Singapore and study the associated psychosocial factors using latent profile analysis., Method: 902 community-dwelling older adults, aged between 60 and 99 years old (Mage = 70.48 years), were recruited as part of the Community Health and Intergenerational Study (CHI). They completed neurocognitive assessments and questionnaires on depression and anxiety symptoms, quality of life, social support, satisfaction with life, and social connectivity. Petersen's criteria was used to diagnose MCI. Within the MCI sample, 166 subjects' psychosocial scores were entered into a latent profile analysis to identify profiles of psychosocial functioning., Results: The prevalence of MCI in our sample was 21.5%. They had significantly lower years of education and perceived social support and higher depressive symptoms than the normal ageing group. Three distinct profiles emerged within the MCI group corresponding to a positive (45.2%), neutral (38.5%), and negative (16.3%) pattern of psychosocial scores. These profiles did not differ significantly in terms of demographic or cognitive variables., Discussion: The three psychosocial profiles might reflect the differing implications of MCI on a person's well-being and the negative psychosocial profile might likely be most at risk of conversion to dementia. Future longitudinal studies are required to confirm these implications., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Electronic doping has endowed colloidal quantum wells (CQWs) with unique optical and electronic properties, holding great potential for future optoelectronic device concepts. Unfortunately, how photogenerated hot carriers interact with phonons in these doped CQWs still remains an open question. Here, through investigating the emission properties, we have observed an efficient phonon cascade process (i.e., up to 27 longitudinal optical phonon replicas are revealed in the broad Cu emission band at room temperature) and identified a giant Huang-Rhys factor ( S ≈ 12.4, more than 1 order of magnitude larger than reported values of other inorganic semiconductor nanomaterials) in Cu-doped CQWs. We argue that such an ultrastrong electron-phonon coupling in Cu-doped CQWs is due to the dopant-induced lattice distortion and the dopant-enhanced density of states. These findings break the widely accepted consensus that electron-phonon coupling is typically weak in quantum-confined systems, which are crucial for optoelectronic applications of doped electronic nanomaterials.

Machine learning methods have increasingly been used to map out brain-behavior associations (BBA), and to predict out-of-scanner behavior of unseen subjects. Given the brain changes that occur in the context of aging, the accuracy of these predictions is likely to depend on how similar the training and testing data sets are in terms of age. To this end, we examined how well BBAs derived from an age-group generalize to other age-groups. We partitioned the CAM-CAN data set (N = 550) into the young, middle, and old age-groups, then used the young and old age-groups to construct prediction models for 11 behavioral outcomes using multimodal neuroimaging features (i.e., structural and resting-state functional connectivity, and gray matter volume/cortical thickness). These models were then applied to all three age-groups to predict their behavioral scores. When the young-derived models were used, a graded pattern of age-generalization was generally observed across most behavioral outcomes-predictions are the most accurate in the young subjects in the testing data set, followed by the middle and then old-aged subjects. Conversely, when the old-derived models were used, the disparity in the predictive accuracy across age-groups was mostly negligible. These findings hold across different imaging modalities. These results suggest the asymmetric age-generalization of BBAs-old-derived BBAs generalized well to all age-groups, however young-derived BBAs generalized poorly beyond their own age-group., (© 2022 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Optical modulation of high harmonic generation (HHG) is of fundamental interest in science and technology, which can facilitate understanding of HHG generation mechanisms and expand the potential optoelectronic applications. However, the current established works have neither shown the advanced modulation performance nor provided a deep understanding of modulation mechanisms. In this work, taking wurtzite zinc oxide (ZnO) single crystal as a prototype, we have demonstrated an all-optical intensity modulation of high-order HHG with a response time of less than 0.2 ps and a depth of more than 95%, based on the pump-probe configuration with two different pumping wavelengths. Besides the achieved excellent modulation performance, we have also revealed that the modulation dynamics in ZnO single crystal highly depend on the excitation conditions. Specifically, the modulation dynamics with the near-bandgap or above-bandgap excitation are attributed to the non-equilibrium interband carrier relaxations, while for mid-gap excitation, the modulation dynamics are dominated by the nonlinear frequency mixing process. This work may enhance the current understanding of the HHG modulation mechanism and enlighten novel device designs.

Background: Physical performance declines and executive dysfunctions are predictors of dementia. However, their associations are not well understood in Asian older adults without dementia (cognitively normal [CN] and mild cognitive impairment [MCI]), especially in a single study., Objective: Examine the associations between physical performance measures with executive function (EF)-based and non-EF-based neurocognitive tests and whether preclinical dementia cognitive status i.e., CN and MCI, moderated these associations., Methods: We examined cross-sectional cohort of 716 community-dwelling older adults without dementia (CN = 562 and MCI = 154) using multivariable linear regression models. We associated three simple physical performance measures, namely timed-up-and-go (TUG), fast gait speed (FGS), and 30-s chair stand test (30 s-CST), with a comprehensive neurocognitive test battery measuring EF and non-EF cognitive functions. Moderating effects of cognitive status on the associations were examined. In all models, we controlled for pertinent covariates, including age, education, medical and psychiatric status., Results: Upon controlling for covariates, TUG was most strongly and positively associated with multiple EF-based neurocognitive tests, followed by FGS, with 30 s-CST having the weakest associations. For all physical performance measures, no significant associations with non-EF-based neurocognitive tests were detected. Cognitive status significantly moderated the associations between all physical measures and several neurocognitive tests, with stronger associations in the MCI than CN., Conclusion: Compared to FGS and 30 s-CST, TUG had the most robust associations with multiple EF-based cognitive functions. Given their differential associations with global and detailed neurocognitive tests and significant moderating effects of cognitive status, findings highlight a need to carefully consider the choices of simple physical performance tests when using these tests with a heterogenous group of community-dwelling older adults without dementia., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Fucoxanthin (FX) is a carotenoid from a marine origin that has an important role in our health, especially in the regulation and alleviation of type 2 diabetes. Its specific molecular structure makes it very unstable, which greatly affects its delivery in the body. In this study, FX was encapsulated in a mono-carrier using a hydrolyzed zein to form a nanocomplex with a stable structure and chemical properties (FZNP). Its stability was demonstrated by characterization and the efficacy of FX before and after encapsulation in alleviating diabetes in mice, which was evaluated by in vivo experiments. FZNP reduced the level of fasting blood glucose and restored it to normal levels in T2DM mice, which was not caused by a decrease in food intake, and effectively reduced oxidative stress in the organism. Both FX and FZNP repaired the hepatocyte and pancreatic β-cell damage, increased serum SOD and reduced INS values significantly, upregulated PI3K-AKT genes as well as CaMK and GNAs expression in the pancreas. FZNP increased ADPN and GSH-PX values more significantly and it decreased serum HOMA-IR and MDA values, upregulated GLUT2 expression, promoted glucose transport in pancreatic and hepatocytes, regulated glucose metabolism and glycogen synthesis with much superior effects than FX.

The layered semiconductor Bi 2 O 2 Se is a promising new-type 2D material that holds layered structure via electrostatic forces instead of van der Waals (vdW) attractions. Aside from the huge success in device performance, the non-vdW nature in Bi 2 O 2 Se with a built-in interlayer electric field has also provided an appealing platform for investigating unique photoexcited carrier dynamics. Here, experimental evidence for the observation of excimers in multilayer Bi 2 O 2 Se nanosheets via transient absorption spectroscopy is presented. It is found that the excimer formation is the primary decay pathway of photoexcited excitons and three-stage excimer dynamics with corresponding time scales are established. Excitation-fluence-dependent excimer dynamics further suggest that the excimer is diffusive and its formation can be simply described as excitons relaxed to an excimer geometry. This work indicates the outstanding promise of unique excitonic processes in Bi 2 O 2 Se, which may motivate novel device designs., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Malt-induced premature yeast flocculation (PYF) is a sporadic problem within the brewing industry. The use of PYF malts is concomitant with a number of negative impacts on beer quality, including incomplete fermentation and/or flavor defects. Although malt-induced PYF is widely acknowledged, actions taken so far have proved insufficient to solve the PYF-related issues. To limit the detrimental effects of PYF malts on beer production, an adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) process was applied in this study to an industrial lager brewing yeast strain (TT02), in an attempt to generate variant strains with improved fermentation performance in PYF wort. Through a batch fermentation-based adaptation process, evolved variants were isolated and screened for their phenotypic and metabolic traits. The investigation focused mainly on the tendency to remain in suspension, fermentation capacity and final acetaldehyde concentration. We successfully obtained a variant (TT02-30 T) with improved fermentation properties. The improvement was seen in worts prepared from different types of PYF malt as well as normal malt. Furthermore, ALE of lager brewing yeast in PYF wort yielded a wide array of mutations. Several changes in the genomes (copy number variation in flocculin encoding gene FLO1 and a missense SNP in a putative mitochondrial membrane protein coding gene FMP10) of the variant strains relative to the original strain were observed. These could potentially contribute to the improved yeast suspension during fermentation. Importantly, mutational enrichment in genes related to ion binding in PYF-evolved strains suggests the involvement of the yeast ion transportation process in dealing with the PYF stress. Our study demonstrates the possibility of attenuating yeast sensitivity to PYF malts over time through adaptive laboratory evolution via spontaneous mutation., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Telomere shortening is theorized to accelerate biological aging, however, this has not been tested in the brain and cognitive contexts. We used machine learning age-prediction models to determine brain/cognitive age and quantified the degree of accelerated aging as the discrepancy between brain and/or cognitive and chronological ages (i.e., age gap). We hypothesized these age gaps are associated with telomere length (TL). Using healthy participants from the ADNI-3 cohort (N = 196, Age mean =70.7), we trained age-prediction models using 4 modalities of brain features and cognitive scores, as well as a 'stacked' model combining all brain modalities. Then, these 6 age-prediction models were applied to an independent sample diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (N = 91, Age mean =71.3) to determine, for each subject, the model-specific predicted age and age gap. TL was most strongly associated with age gaps from the resting-state functional connectivity model after controlling for confounding variables. Overall, telomere shortening was significantly related to older brain but not cognitive age gaps. In particular, functional relative to structural brain-age gaps, were more strongly implicated in telomere shortening., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Behavior-associated structural connectivity (SC) and resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) networks undergo various changes in aging. To study these changes, we proposed a continuous dimension where at one end networks generalize well across age groups in terms of behavioral predictions (age-general) and at the other end, they predict behaviors well in a specific age group but fare poorly in another age group (age-specific). We examined how age generalizability/specificity of multimodal behavioral associated brain networks varies across behavioral domains and imaging modalities. Prediction models consisting of SC and/or rsFC networks were trained to predict a diverse range of 75 behavioral outcomes in a young adult sample (N = 92). These models were then used to predict behavioral outcomes in unseen young (N = 60) and old (N = 60) subjects. As expected, behavioral prediction models derived from the young age group, produced more accurate predictions in the unseen young than old subjects. These behavioral predictions also differed significantly across behavioral domains, but not imaging modalities. Networks associated with cognitive functions, except for a few mostly relating to semantic knowledge, fell toward the age-specific end of the spectrum (i.e., poor young-to-old generalizability). These findings suggest behavior-associated brain networks are malleable to different degrees in aging; such malleability is partly determined by the nature of the behavior., (© 2022 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

α-l-Arabinofuranosidase (Abf), a debranching enzyme that can remove arabinose substituents from arabinoxylan, promotes the hydrolysis of hemicellulose in plant biomass. However, the functional specificity of Abfs from different glycoside hydrolase (GH) families on the digestion of arabinoxylan and their synergistic interaction with xylanase have not been systematically studied. In this work, we characterized three Abfs (AxhA, AbfB, and AbfC) from GH62, GH54, and GH51 families in Aspergillus niger An76. Quantitative transcriptional analysis showed that expression of the axhA gene was upregulated as a result of induction by xylose substrates, whereas expression of the abfB gene was mainly induced by arabinose. Recombinant AxhA, AbfB, and AbfC exhibited different hydrolytic performances. AxhA showed the highest catalytic activity toward wheat arabinoxylan (WAX) and tended to hydrolyze monosubstituted arabinofuranose units, whereas AbfB had higher catalytic activity on AN and debranched arabinan (DAN), having the ability to cope with mono- and disubstituted arabinofuranose units. Furthermore, AbfC had greater arabinofuranosidase activity on p -nitrophenyl-α-l-arabinofuranoside ( p NP-AraF) than on other substrates. Moreover, three Abfs displayed obvious synergistic action with GH11 xylanase XynB against WAX and barley husk residues. The elucidation of the degradation mechanisms of Abfs will lay a theoretical foundation for the efficient industrialized transformation of arabinoxylans.

Manipulating lattice vibrations is the cornerstone to achieving ultralow thermal conductivity in thermoelectrics. Although spatial control by novel material designs has been recently reported, temporal manipulation, which can shape thermoelectric properties under nonequilibrium conditions, remains largely unexplored. Here, taking SnSe as a representative, we have demonstrated that in the ultrafast pump-pump-probe spectroscopy, electronic and lattice coherences inherited from optical excitations can be exploited independently to manipulate phonon oscillations in a highly selective manner. Specifically, when the pump-pump delay time ( t mod ) is in the electronic coherence time range, the amplitude, frequency, and lifetime of all phonon modes are simultaneously following the optical cycle. While extending t mod into the lattice coherence time range, the amplitude of each coherent phonon mode can be selectively manipulated according to its intrinsic period without changing the frequency and lifetime. This work opens up exciting avenues to temporally and discriminatorily manipulate phononic processes in thermoelectric materials.

Objective: The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) is widely used in research and clinical settings. However, little is known about the use of the CANTAB in the local aging context. This study aimed to develop normative data for various CANTAB measures in community-living older adults in Singapore. Normative data were built using the regression-based approach. A secondary aim was to examine the concurrent validity of CANTAB measures with their traditional neurocognitive test counterparts., Method: A total of 210 older adults (Mage = 67.27 years, SD = 5.45) from an existing cohort study completed standard neurocognitive tests and a CANTAB battery. A total of 160 were normal aging, 46 diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and one diagnosed with Dementia. Older adults with MCI and Dementia were not included in the calculation of norms but were included in other analyses. For the CANTAB battery, regression-based norms were generated for each CANTAB measure, with age, sex, and education included as covariates. Concurrent validity was examined by correlating the CANTAB measures with their traditional neurocognitive counterparts., Results: As expected, performance across most CANTAB measures declined significantly with increasing age and decreasing education levels. There were no significant effects of sex on most CANTAB measures. Our study also showed that some CANTAB measures demonstrated good concurrent validity as they significantly correlated with their traditional neurocognitive test counterparts., Conclusions: We have developed age, sex, and education-specific CANTAB norms for use in the local aging context. The advantages and challenges of using the CANTAB in the local aging context are discussed., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Distrust, and more broadly, public perception of government's handling of a crisis, has been a widely studied topic within health crisis research and suggests that these perceptions are significantly associated with the behavior of its citizens., Purpose: To understand which aspects of the public's perception of government handling of the COVID-19 pandemic predicted engagement of protective behaviors among older adults, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19., Methods: Participants were recruited from an ongoing biopsychosocial study on aging amongst community-dwelling older adults. There were two rounds of data collection, during the national lockdown and post-lockdown. The average length of follow-up was 5.88 months. N = 421 completed the first round of data collection and N = 318 subsequently completed the second round of questionnaires., Results: During the lockdown, perceptions that pandemic-related measures in place were sufficient, effective, timely, provided a sense of safety, important information was easily accessible, and government handling of the pandemic could be trusted, were found to significantly predict engagement in protective behaviors. During post-lockdown, only perceptions that measures in place were sufficient, provided a sense of safety, and important information was easily accessible, remained significant predictors. The perception that COVID-19 measures were clear and easy to understand now became a significant predictor., Conclusions: Public perceptions of government handling of the pandemic predicted engagement in protective behaviors but were less important during post-lockdown. To effectively engage older adults in protective behavior, our findings suggest for pandemic-related information to be accessible, introducing timely safety measures, and having easy-to-understand instructions for nuanced measures., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Layered tin selenide (SnSe) has recently emerged as a high-performance thermoelectric material with the current record for the figure of merit ( ZT ) observed in the high-temperature Cmcm phase. So far, access to the Cmcm phase has been mainly obtained via thermal equilibrium methods based on sample heating or application of external pressure, thus restricting the current understanding only to ground-state conditions. Here, we investigate the ultrafast carrier and phononic dynamics in SnSe. Our results demonstrate that optical excitations can transiently switch the point-group symmetry of the crystal from Pnma to Cmcm at room temperature in a few hundreds of femtoseconds with an ultralow threshold for the excitation carrier density. This nonequilibrium Cmcm phase is found to be driven by the displacive excitation of coherent A g phonons and, given the absence of low-energy thermal phonons, exists in SnSe with the status of 'cold lattice with hot carriers'. Our findings provide an important insight for understanding the nonequilibrium thermoelectric properties of SnSe.

Objective: The COVID-19 lockdown could see older adults facing increased anxiety levels due to social isolation. Additionally, the lockdown could be more difficult for those with lower Quality of Life (QoL). We aim to understand predictive factors of older adult's anxiety symptoms during the lockdown as it is a main psychological concern of COVID-19., Methods: Four hundred eleven participants (M age  = 68.95, S.D. = 5.60) completed questionnaires at two time points - before the pandemic and during the lockdown period. Cross-lagged analysis was carried out on two structural equation models - social isolation and anxiety symptoms, and QoL and anxiety symptoms., Results: Baseline social isolation was associated with more anxiety symptoms at follow-up. However, baseline anxiety symptoms were not associated with social isolation subsequently. For QoL and anxiety symptoms, the relationship was bidirectional., Conclusion: Older adults who were previously socially isolated and had a lower QoL are particularly vulnerable to the negative psychological impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown., (Copyright © 2021 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Barley Limit dextrinase (Hordeum vulgare HvLD) is the unique endogenous starch-debranching enzyme, determining the production of a high degree of fermentation. The activity of HvLD is regulated by an endogenous LD inhibitor protein (LDI). In beer production, free LD is easy to inactivate in mashing process under the condition of high temperature. The binding of LD with LDI protects it against heat inactivation. Exploring the factors affecting the themostability of HvLD-LDI complex is important for beer production. In this work, the themostability of HvLD-LDI complex at different NaCl concentrations and temperatures were explored by molecular dynamics simulation and binding free energy calculation. In NaCl solution, the complex exhibits higher conformational stability at 343 K and 363 K than those in pure water. Root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) analysis identified the thermal sensitive regions of HvLD and LDI. The binding free energy results suggest that the LD-LDI complex is more stable in NaCl solution than those in pure water at high temperature. The residues with high contribution to the complex were identified. The structural and dynamic details will help us to understand the driving forces that lead to the themostability of HvLD-LDI complex at different temperatures and different salt concentrations, which will facilitate the optimization conditions of beer production for maintaining the thermal stability and activity of HvLD., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Geriatric depression and anxiety disorders often manifest as neuropsychiatric symptoms among those with mild cognitive impairment. Both tend to co-occur, and overlap in symptomology and etiology. Such commonalities are likely to be reflected in the brain as common neural correlates. Using connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM), we examined the functional and structural connectomes predicting depression and anxiety symptoms, and subsequently the overlap and cross-syndrome generalization of the connectomes associated with either disorder. Ninety-one older adults completed self-reported measures of depression and anxiety, and underwent diffusion tensor imaging and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional connectivity (FC) and structural connectivity (SC) matrices were derived from these scans and, in various combinations, entered into CPM models to predict either type of symptoms. Leave-one-out cross-validation was performed. Predictive accuracy was assessed via the correlation between predicted and observed scores (ρ predicted-observed ). While FC or SC features alone significantly predicted either type of symptoms, these symptoms were best predicted by models that consisted of both FC and SC features (depression: ρ predicted-observed  = 0.497; anxiety: ρ predicted-observed  = 0.455). The features common to depression and anxiety were identified and entered into another model which was similarly accurate in predicting either type of symptoms. Moreover, cross-syndrome generalization was observed- the depression-associated features significantly predicted anxiety symptoms (ρ predicted-observed  = 0.403) and vice-versa (ρ predicted-observed  = 0.378). These FC and SC features are complementary biomarkers of geriatric depression and anxiety symptoms. Both types of symptoms are largely underpinned by common patterns of altered FC and SC, alluding to the transdiagnostic neurobiological susceptibility in both disorders., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The COVID-19 lockdown has drastically limited social interactions and brought about a climate of fear and uncertainty. These circumstances not only increased affective symptoms and social isolation among community dwelling older adults but also alter the dynamics between them. Using network analyses, we study the changes in these dynamics before and during the lockdown. Community-dwelling older adults (N = 419) completed questionnaires assessing depression, anxiety, and social isolation, before the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of a cohort study, and during the lockdown period. The total scores of these questionnaires were compared across time. For the network analyses, partial correlation networks were constructed using items in the questionnaires as nodes, separately at both timepoints. Changes in edges, as well as nodal and bridge centrality were examined across time. Depression and anxiety symptoms, and social isolation had significantly increased during the lockdown. Significant changes were observed across time on several edges. Greater connectivity between the affective and social isolation nodes at lockdown was observed. Depression symptoms have become more tightly coupled across individuals, and so were the anxiety symptoms. Depression symptoms have also become slightly decoupled from those of anxiety. These changing network dynamics reflect the greater influence of social isolation on affective symptoms across individuals and an increased vulnerability to affective disorders. These findings provide novel perspectives and translational implications on the changing mental health context amidst a COVID-19 pandemic situation., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Nonlinear phononics has recently been demonstrated as a viable approach for dynamically modifying materials' properties. Conventionally, nonlinearity in the lattice dynamics is introduced via the "ionic" Raman scattering, in which infrared-active phonons (i.e., coherent ionic vibrations) serve as the intermediate state for transferring energy to Raman-active phonons. Here we report that it is also possible to achieve phononic nonlinearity through the "electronic" route, a process that relies on excited electronic states to initiate energy exchange among Raman-active phonons. Taking layered ReSe 2 as a model system, we use coherent phonon spectroscopy with a pump energy larger than the band gap to follow lattice dynamics and observe the nonlinear coupling between both Raman-active intralayer atomic oscillations and interlayer breathing modes. In addition, we show that such nonlinear phononic coupling is highly dependent on the environment temperature. This work, which demonstrates a different and novel mechanism, may enrich the toolkit for controlling material properties by means of nonlinear phononics.

Defects can affect all aspects of materials by altering their electronic structures and mediating the carrier dynamics. However, in the past decades, most research efforts were restricted to nonstoichiometric defects, while the effects of high-density defects on the carrier dynamics of semiconductors remained elusive. In this work, using transient absorption spectroscopy, we have observed for the first time a hybrid carrier relaxation dynamics with the feature of a Poisson-like retard shoulder in a time-domain profile in highly defective ZnO crystals. This novel behavior has been attributed to the spectral diffusion within continuum defect states, which is further confirmed by a proposed diffusion (in energy space) controlled carrier dynamic model. Our results thus reveal an alternative energy decay channel in highly defective crystals and may provide a new route for defect engineering., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)

The implementation of lockdown measures to curb the transmission of Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has brought about significant psychological impacts and older adults have been identified as one of the vulnerable groups. In the current COVID-19 context among older adults in the community, the fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, compassion, resilience, and the practice of protective behaviors are possibly related to each other in several ways. How these factors relate to each other would have important implications in managing the spread of the disease and its mental health consequences. To this end, we modeled their interrelationships using a structural equation model. Older adults (N = 421), aged 60 and above completed various questionnaires-COVID-19 Fear Inventory, Short form of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory, COVID-19 Risky and Protective Behaviours, Resilience Appraisals Scale, and Compassion Scale during a COVID-19 lockdown. The relationships between these variables were assessed within a structural equation model. The findings showed that older adults who are more compassionate engage in protective behaviors more frequently. Additionally, frequent practice of protective behaviors and greater resilience predicted lower anxiety among older adults. Greater fear predicted higher anxiety levels but did not significantly influence an individual's engagement in protective behaviors. Mental health services are crucial in fostering resilience and supporting older adults psychologically. Social services are also necessary in maintaining and enhancing social support for older adults. Importantly, these findings suggest that public health communications could promote compassion and avoid using a fear-based approach to increase engagement in protective behaviors., (© Society of Behavioral Medicine 2021. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Fear is a common and potentially distressful psychological response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The factors associated with such fear remains relatively unstudied among older adults. We investigated if fear of COVID-19 could be associated with a combination of psychological factors such as anxiety and depressive symptoms, and risk perception of COVID-19, and demographic factors in a community sample of older adults. Older adults ( N = 413, M age = 69.09 years, SD = 5.45) completed measures of fear of COVID-19, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and risk perception of COVID-19, during a COVID-19 lockdown. These variables, together with demographics, were fitted to a structural equation model. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were highly correlated with each other and were combined into the higher order latent variable of affective symptoms for analyses. The final model revealed that fear of COVID-19 was positively associated with psychological factors of affective symptoms and risk perception. Older age was associated with greater fear of COVID-19. Our findings showed that fear of COVID-19 can be a projection of pre-existing affective symptoms and inflated risk perceptions and highlighted the need to address the incorrect risk perceptions of COVID-19 and socio-affective issues among older adults in the community., Competing Interests: The authors declare that this study received funding from Research Donations from Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, Lee Kim Tah Holdings Pte Ltd., and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The funders were not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication., (Copyright © 2021 Han, Mahendran and Yu.)

Mindfulness-based interventions can enhance cognitive abilities among older adults, thereby effectively delaying cognitive decline. These cognitive enhancements are theorized to accompany neuroplastic changes in the brain. However, this mindfulness-associated neuroplasticity has yet to be documented adequately. A randomized controlled trial was carried out among participants with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to examine the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on various cognitive outcomes and cortical thickness (CT) in the context of age-related cognitive impairment. Participants were assigned to a mindfulness awareness program (MAP)(n = 27) and an active control condition - health education program (n = 27). In both, they attended weekly sessions for three months and subsequently, monthly sessions for six months. Cognitive assessments and structural scans were carried out across three time-points. Whole brain analyses on CT were carried out and were supplemented with region of interest-based analyses. ROI values and cognitive outcomes were analyzed with mixed MANOVAs and followed up with univariate ANOVAs. Nine-month MAP-associated gains in working memory span and divided attention, along with an increased CT in the right frontal pole and decreased CT in the left anterior cingulate were observed. Three-month MAP-associated CT increase was observed in the left inferior temporal gyrus but did not sustain thereafter. MAP led to significant cognitive gains and various CT changes. Most of these neurobehavioral changes, may require sustained effort across nine months, albeit at a reduced intensity. MAP can remediate certain cognitive impairments and engender neuroplastic effects even among those with MCI., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)